A lion in March, and Pi day

Clivia Cyrtanthiflora Group selections

Anyone who lives in New England knows that March can often bring the worst winter weather, fierce Nor’Easters and blizzards are famous this time of year. This week it was not a blizzard, but a quite average winter storm, but since this winter has been anything but average, the storm earned a logo on the Weather Channel (March Snowstorm®) and resulted in closed businesses and schools on Friday. We recieved 11 inches in Worcester, hardly anything, really, considering most winters bring us a seasonal total accumulation of around 120 inches, this year, our seasonal total is barely 16 inches. Still, the storm was exciting, and brought down three panes of glass from the greenhouse again – dang Texas Greenhouse designers – the clips tha thold the glass are simply not designed for ice and wet snow that freezes and then slides down, removing all of the clips in its path.

March is Clivia season, and surprisingly, the interspecific Clivia crosses that we have made, and the ones which we brought back from japan from Mr. Nakamura are still blooming. Interspecific meaning that the cross was made between a two species of Clivia, mostly C. gardenii, or C. caulsecens, with the more common clivia species, C. miniata. The first two species are fall bloomers, and C. miniata is a spring bloomer, so the resulting crosses seem to fill the gap nicely. Not only are they my favorite, because of thier dangling blossoms, they are more uncommon, and not frequently seen in catalogs, or nurseries. Not as showy as the blossomy C. miniata forms, these are still quite lovely, and the above photo shows some of our best color selections taken this week, and from the same week last year. The red ones are more orange, they turn red as they age, the pink form are spectacular crosses from a Nakamura cross called Daydream. Call it peach, or pink, they are beautiful as they change color as the blossom ages.

Acacia cut from the greenhouse brightens up a snowy day.